Kumsal Bayazit takes over today as Elsevier’s Chief Executive Officer, replacing Ron Mobed, who joined Elsevier in 2011. Kumsal becomes the first female CEO in the company’s close-to-140-year history.

Born and raised in Turkey, Kumsal joined RELX Group, Elsevier’s parent company, in 2004 as part of Legal and Risk & BusinessAnalytics, where she held several senior strategy and operational roles. In 2012, she was appointed Chief Strategy Officer of RELX Group, with Elsevier as the group’s largest business…”

KnowledgeSpeak reports that “theEuropean Physical Society (EPS)has warned that a major open-access initiative in Europe could cause -irrecoverable damage’ if it is implemented too quickly.In a statement, the EPS says that while it welcomes the proposal – known as Plan S – as a -medium to long-term vision’, its proponents must get more support by engaging further with the scientific community…”

KnowledgeSpeak also reports that “negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council have agreed a final compromise text for the European Union’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. The proposed Directive, which has been nearly three years in the making, contains many positive developments for Europe’s library, education and research community…”

Pearson announced on Monday that they had agreed to sell its US K-12 textbook business to Nexus Capital Management for $250 million.

Nexus will pay an initial $25 million and a further $225 million in the form of a vendor note to be paid over the next three to seven years. Following the repayment of the vendor note, Pearson will be entitled to 20% of all future cash flows to shareholders as well as net proceeds if the division is sold and the market improves…